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Idaho libraries request ongoing authority for federal digital-access grant; committee asks for spending details and summer-reading review

2888867 · January 22, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

At a Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee hearing, the Idaho Commission for Libraries presented budget requests tied to federal digital-access funds and faced questions about making a $2.5 million-per-year program ongoing and about summer-reading materials distributed to children.

The Idaho Commission for Libraries told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that it needs ongoing spending authority to implement its federally funded Digital Access for All Idahoans plan and to reimburse libraries under the Education Opportunity Resource Act.

Legislative budget analyst Brooke Dupree outlined the agency's request and said the commission expects additional federal notices of award and is seeking ongoing authority so the program can be continued through the grant period. "This digital access for all Idahoans grant is a federal grant," Dupree told the committee, explaining the funding originates from IIJA/NTIA allocations and is being administered in partnership with the Idaho Broadband Office.

The commission requested a $2,500,000 ongoing line (described in testimony as coming from a federal Digital Access for All Idahoans award, to be spent over five years) and a $42,400 ongoing broadband reimbursement tied to the Education Opportunity Resource Act (chapter 56, title 33, Idaho Code).…

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